Current Members of the Executive Committee
President: Linda Trompf
Vice President: Dean Hewson
Treasurer: Tony Krizan
Members: Bea Vann, Emma Baldock, Peta Harbour, Izzy Moss, Karen McKernan, and Karin Calford.
Linda Trompf – President
Linda has a background in health with more than 30 years’ experience in both direct service delivery and as a senior policy officer in the ACT Health Directorate. Linda has always been committed to focussing on the needs of consumers at both the individual and systemic level.
After retiring from full-time employment Linda joined HCCA in 2015 to seek ways to continue to represent consumer needs and advocate for consumer empowerment and partnership in the health care sector. Linda has been chair of HCCA’s Health Policy and Research Committee and a member of the Quality and Safety Consumer Reference Group, and was elected as President at the 2022 Annual General Meeting. She also represents HCCA on the Canberra Health Services Blood Management Committee and the BreastScreen ACT Consumer Reference Group.
Dean Hewson – Vice President
Dean is a health consumer and passionate advocate for more empathetic, helpful and digitally enabled health systems with people at their heart. He has professional experience across policy, design, management, communications and IT, and has previously worked as a Policy Adviser at the Consumers Health Forum of Australia.
Dean joined the Executive Committee in 2020 and is currently the Consumer Representative on the ACT’s Digital Health Record Clinical Steering Committee.
Tony Krizan – Treasurer
Tony Krizan, FCPA, is a senior public servant with extensive experience across a number of industries and featuring 32 years in the public sector across a broad range of policy, program and corporate roles in the Finance, Employment, Education and Training and the Health and Ageing portfolios.
Tony also has extensive experience on governance, audit and risk committees across government and the professional and community sectors.
Bea Vann
Bea has been a member of HCCA since 2016 and joined the Executive Committee in 2018. She is also a member of the Health of Older People Consumer Reference Group.
Her background is in community aged care. Bea began her career in aged care in 1998 as a Home Care Personal Assistant and by 2006 she became the coordinator of the program and coordinated a total of up to 70 clients and 20 staff in Queanbeyan. She worked with Red Cross for 4 years coordinating the Community Visiting Program before taking on an Aged Care Advocacy Role with ADACAS early in October 2020.
Bea would like to understand and be more mindful of the services that are provided to older people in our community who are in a hospital/health care setting and to make a difference when required, if she can.
Emma Baldock
Emma has a background in health; in clinical health service delivery, counselling, research, education, community development, and health professional regulation. Working in primary health care and as a former homebirth midwife, she has always had a passion for the provision of responsive health care from individual, professional and quality healthcare delivery perspectives.
Now retired from working in clinical roles she joined HCCA to bring her experiences both as a provider and consumer of health services to contribute to advocacy and consumer empowerment and the vital work of HCCA. She has served on several health advisory committees. Emma has recently joined HCCA’s Health Policy and Research Committee and is the Consumer Representative on the Canberra Region Medical Education Council.
Peta Harbour
Peta joined HCCA in 2021 and has a background in nursing, specialising in emergency care, chronic illness management, and health professional education. Peta is a zealous advocate for the essential nature of the consumer experience, autonomy in decision making, and equitable access to services. Peta is a Board Member of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia for the ACT.
Peta is passionate about providing a voice for consumers by participating in health service planning and policy development; this involvement has broadened her perspective of the impact of the nursing industry and the long-term impact of decisions on the community and patient safety.
Izzy Moss
Izzy Moss is a young, Queer advocate for equity in health policy, with a strong background in the disability space. Izzy is the Secretary of Women with Disabilities ACT and the Co-Founder of the Rainbow Bee-Eaters LGBTIQA+ Group, a community group connecting Queer Canberrans to community and providing a safe space for outdoors activities and bird conservation.
Izzy is in their final year of a double degree in Science (majoring in Genetics) and Arts (majoring in Sociology) at the Australian National University, with a focus of empowering disabled people in medical policy and healthcare.
Izzy has advised major organisations on their Queer and disability policies, and spearheaded major policy reform including the transgender inclusivity policy that is currently utilised by the ANU Queer Department.
Izzy has also worked in pastoral care positions at ANU, and as the Human Relations Officer for the Canberra Students Housing Cooperative. Their current work portfolio focuses on fundraising and donor engagement for major NGOs at Community Shapers.
Karen McKernan
Karen joined the Executive Committee in 2021 and has been a member of the Health Care Consumers’ Association since 2016.
She currently works in the community sector for an organisation that supports people with mental illness and is passionate about helping others. Prior to her current role, Karen worked in several public service roles for over 14 years and spent about 6 of these years working on health policy.
Through her own and her family’s various illnesses and injuries, she has had extensive experience of the health system in the ACT and New South Wales and brings this perspective to her role on the Executive Committee.
Karin Calford
Karin has a long history of health consumer advocacy, through Haemochromatosis Australia (HA), Health Consumers NSW and HCCA. She has been a member of HCCA since 2018 and joined the Executive Committee in November 2022. Karin is an experienced consumer representative and has participated in committee and project work at both the local and national level.
Karin is passionate about health literacy, from both the system perspective and the individual consumer perspective. She believes health consumers have a role to play in advocating for and participating in a fit-for purpose health system at both the primary and tertiary care level.